GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Involve the kids in euthanasia, advises Canadian doctor

domingo, 1 de marzo de 2020

BioEdge: Involve the kids in euthanasia, advises Canadian doctor

BioEdge: Involve the kids in euthanasia, advises Canadian doctor

Bioedge

Involve the kids in euthanasia, advises Canadian doctor

by Michael Cook | 29 Feb 2020 | 3 comments

Bedside gatherings at a Canadian euthanasia are normally an adults-only affair. But one doctor suggests that young children would benefit from becoming involved.

In a blog entry at a University of British Columbia site, Dr Susan Woolhouse, who has been involved in some 70 “assisted deaths”, says “My past experiences during my palliative care rotations reassured me that children could benefit from bearing witness to a loved one’s death. Why would MAID be any different?”

She gives some tips about how to explain the process of dying to young children:

Assuming that children are given honest, compassionate and non-judgmental information about MAID, there is no reason to think that witnessing a medically assisted death cannot be integrate as a normal part of the end of life journey for their loved one. If the adults surrounding them normalize MAID, so will the children.

“These conversations can easily be had with children as young as 4,” she says.

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge

“Progressive! Individuals have a right to ‘self-determined’ suicide, including the freedom to take one's own life and to enlist support provided by third parties. German court rules assisted suicide ban violates citizens' rights to determine their own death.”

This was tweeted by Philip Nitschke, Australia’s indefatigable campaigner for an unfettered right to die. It was a good summary of a decision by the German Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday, which declared that banning assisted suicide was against Germany’s ‘Basic Law’.

From now on people will be free to seek commercial assistance to help them die. (At least doctors won’t be co-opted, for the moment.) This opens up all sorts of business opportunities. Will there be death doulas in every funeral home? Watch this space.